Dude, he wasn't. He became rated 10 the week after the Diaconu fight. Nobody even knew who the hell he was before the Diaconu fight, and he got respect for making the fight very close.
I can't think of a time when Dawson would have fought Diaconu prior to become WBC beltholder. He fought at 160 into 2005, stopped off at 168 and then moved up to 172 on the undercard of Calzaghe/Lacy in a showcase bout. That was March 2006. His next fight was at 175 against Eric Harding on ShoBox, who still was Ring top 10 at that time and obviously a bigger name than Diaconu. That's when the Drews fight was set up and fell through, at which point Dawson went directly from Harding to Adamek. Where could a Diaconu bout have happened prior to Adamek?
He was rated in the lightheavyweight rankings before fighting at 175,they were supposed to fight sometime around september 06 for the first time.
After Harding, or instead of? It wouldn't have made sense over Harding, and the talk after that was the eliminator against Drews. Why would Dawson have chased someone who wasn't involved in the eliminator? I'm sure he'd have fought Diaconu had the WBC set it up that way.
He was rated 10 before the Diaconu fight,I know for sure,sure nobody knew him but that doesn't mean he was not rated,he has a lot of regional belts so thats another reason,besides look at the no 1 contender for the WBA 140 lb belt Marcos Rene Maidana,he good but nobody knows him.
I think that after the Harding fight which was in june so september,october 06,Diaconu was ranked above Dawson but Gary Shaw didn't mind,ducked Diaconu there
Dawson was No. 3 in the WBC post-Harding, leading to a bout against No. 1 Drews. How could Dawson duck anyone in that scenario? He was going through the No. 1 guy and then, when Drews pulled out, got a shot at the title. I don't understand where you're coming from on this at all.
So instead of fighting the #1 he should have fought the #2??? And when the fight with the #1 fell through he should have fought the #2 instead of the champion?? I have seen the light now. Thank you.
People are brain damaged. How the hell could he be ducking anyone then he had no one put before him? He had a big match booked and the other guy canceled.